


unassuming

by midoriyas



Category: TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, High School Reunion AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26373724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midoriyas/pseuds/midoriyas
Summary: Soobin reluctantly attends his high school reunion and discovers something out of his depth.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Choi Yeonjun
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	unassuming

**Author's Note:**

> A personal piece, of things that could’ve been, for fun. Unbeta’d.
> 
> Disclaimer: I've never been to a high school reunion. Also this references the American schooling system.
> 
> Warning for a short paragraph about a habit of biting the skin inside mouth.

“You know,” he starts.

_No,_ Soobin thinks, _I_ don’t _know._

“I used to like you back in high school.” He finishes, quickly looking away from Soobin and then proceeds to drown himself in his glass of whatever alcohol it was.

Huh.

Soobin blinks slowly. This came as a revelation to him because sitting next to him is Choi Yeonjun. A guy that barely acknowledged that he was alive back when they were in high school.

They did not run in the same circle of friends, their personalities didn’t seem compatible, and that was pretty much it. Soobin and Yeonjun never spoke more than ten words to the other even if they had a chance to cross paths.

Choi Yeonjun was the type of person that were friends with the louder or, for lack of a better word, _cooler_ kids. (Soobin refuses to use the word popular.)

And Soobin was, well, he wasn’t the opposite of loud. He was quite loud, in fact, in 11th grade he remembered calling out a kid in the opposing team who whined about Soobin’s team for cheating when they did not. He remembered stating the counterpoint so loud that everyone in the class turned his way, but he didn’t see them. His stare was on the other kid and Soobin was fuming and he was running on adrenaline and the silence was only broken by the teacher moving on the next question of the stupid Jeopardy game.

Beomgyu had tentatively poked his elbow and told him, _it’s okay Soobin. Calm down._

_No, Beomgyu it is_ not _okay,_ Soobin had wanted to say. But he didn’t want to be a drama queen so he switched to staring at the overhead screen instead.

He was polite towards his teachers and peers but didn’t bother hiding his dislike if someone irked him. He wanted to go through high school peacefully.

Soobin briefly thinks that this is a prank. Part of some game that the other attendees were playing at the other table Soobin saw when he first walked in but strode past without batting an eye. None of those folks were his friends, and maybe Yeonjun was part of that group.

But now Soobin catches Yeonjun side-eyeing him when he could no longer pretend to drink out of his empty glass anymore, then rushes to look away when Soobin caught him.

“Okay.” Soobin drawls.

Yeonjun turns his head back to Soobin so fast that Soobin flinched, almost spilling his glass of soda that he was nursing.

Yeonjun shrinks back into himself, a form of apology but didn’t say anything else.

“And?” Soobin continues.

Yeonjun’s eyebrows slightly shot up, his eyes wide like he is asking a question.

Soobin flares his nose. Because, really, what was Yeonjun expecting him to say to that anyway?

“Are you telling me this to— I dunno— get it off your chest?”

Yeonjun’s mouth opens and closes. His entire face goes through a series of emotions that Soobin can’t understand. He looks like he wants to say something but thinks better of it, decides on something else but thinks better of it again.

Placing his glass on the table a little too loudly, Soobin opens his mouth as a little thought, somewhat arrogant, somewhat ridiculous, and will probably make him regret it after he says it out loud, but it’s suddenly there and prompts Soobin to speak it into existence anyway.

“Or _maybe_ you suddenly see me today, realize you’re still not over me, and want another chance?”

Yeonjun’s mouth promptly closes, shameful.

Soobin exhales, almost scoffs at the hilarity. “Seriously? What is the point of telling me this now when you’ve had four years of knowing me in high school and not telling me then.”

Soobin isn’t being nice. Or as nice as he would like to be, but it’s not like he’s going to see Yeonjun again. He’s managed to not see him ever since they graduated after all, and he wasn’t even trying to avoid Yeonjun.

Alright. Okay. If Yeonjun wants to continue forming his words then Soobin will allow him that.

He picks up his long-forgotten chopsticks and picks at the closest food, a salmon sushi. He doesn’t even eat raw sushi. But he was trying not to look at Yeonjun because right now looking at Yeonjun makes him want to spit out stupid things. Food is a good distraction, yes. Food is what Kai suggested will be “free” to convince him to come to this reunion after all.

Speak of the devil, his phone vibrates and lights up his underclassman slash roommate’s name. It was nearing midnight and Soobin had told Kai that if he so insists that Soobin gets picked up instead of driving himself home (“In case you get drunk!” Kai had said.) then he should pick him up around midnight.

It looks like Taehyun’s still awake and decided to tag along with Kai.

_These night owls,_ Soobin smiles and sends an affirmative when Kai texts that he’s out the door.

“I didn’t realize that I liked you in high school,” Yeonjun starts. Soobin startles and sets his phone down on his thigh. He looks at him while chewing, mumbles an _uh-huh_ for Yeonjun to continue.

Yeonjun’s finger starts tapping lightly on the table as he gazes somewhere behind Soobin. A memory.

“You were so quiet and unassuming, y’know, always a bit out of the way as if you didn’t want to bother anyone. But when you were around your friends you laughed unabashedly. I didn’t even think that laugh came from you at first.”

Soobin swallows the sushi and picked up another one again, just for something to do. He must admit, the thought that someone paid attention to him, or thought of him without him knowing has always been a weird concept to him. Like _wow,_ Soobin exists somewhere else rather than in his immediate surroundings, his little bubble.

Yeonjun continues, “you surprised me. Thinking about it now it’s obvious that you can laugh loud, we’re all more comfortable around people we know. But what surprised me the most is how you sometimes spoke loud too. You’re outspoken in your own right, but you spoke softly and had to be told to raise your volume. Once you speak loud though, all eyes are on you.”

That struck Soobin still, a memory niggles itself out from the depth of his brain, wanting to escape. It came slowly in pieces and blurred until it came together enough that he can make sense of it, that he's able to splatter color over it.

In 10th grade literature period, Soobin’s teacher sat the whole class in a circle to discuss some short story they had read. At that time Soobin developed a habit of biting the skin inside his mouth. Oftentimes he bit too hard that he started tasting a metallic tang. When that happened, he would automatically close his fist and use the curve of his index finger to push the skin from outside his mouth around to bite at a fresh spot.

He remembers hearing giggling and looked up, only to see Yeonjun sitting opposite of him. Next to Yeonjun was one of his friends, Soobin doesn’t remember who. Maybe it was Changbin, or maybe it was Wooyoung.

Yeonjun sitting opposite of him and being giggly wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he and his friend were both looking at Soobin and that made Soobin's brain go into overdrive. Why were they looking at him? Were they laughing at him? If they were, what did he do?

Soobin clenched his fist and realized how close it was to his mouth.

_Oh._

At that age Soobin remembered classmates and friends alike making stupid jokes. A specific one was when person A would tell person B to look up, close their eyes, open their mouth and pretend to shake a saltshaker into their mouth, because then they would taste salt. _Seriously! It’s true!_

That was the immediate conclusion Soobin’s brain came to and he promptly interrupted his teacher’s lecture.

“You guys are disgusting.”

In hindsight that was probably silly of him. But at the time Soobin felt offended and he somehow always lose all shamelessness when he got angry. He doesn’t like to think about these sorts of memories. He doesn’t like that Yeonjun is, on purpose or not, making him remember these random episodes in his high school that he’s never even think about before today.

“I just thought of you as that quiet kid that was sometimes loud.” Yeonjun’s voice interrupts his internal turmoil. “Nothing much else, but we had a lot of classes together and I guess I started to look at you more.” He murmurs, voice starting to go softer, almost sounding fonder.

The thought of Yeonjun’s voice sounding like that because he’s talking about Soobin struck him again and he bites his bottom lip to keep from speaking.

Soobin looks up and Yeonjun twists his face away, avoiding Soobin _again._

It’s funny. It’s funny how Yeonjun is acting like he’s shy and keeps looking away from Soobin when he seemed confident in his own skin in high school. He probably walked around the campus with a straightened back, a laugh that traveled from the lunchroom to the gym, and a group of friends that flashed their wide grins to compliment how happy they were— how happy they looked.

Yeonjun is looking like the opposite of how he was when he confidently stride over to Soobin earlier and asked if he can talk to him, taking Felix’s seat.

One time in English class, Soobin’s teacher had randomly divided students into groups of five or six to discuss a reading. Soobin didn’t really understand the reading so he tried to slip in early on and make a point that sounded good enough so he doesn’t have to speak for the rest of discussion again. After that he blanked out and nodded his head in between intervals when it felt right.

“—jun. Yeonjun!”

Yeji, who was the facilitator during that discussion, was staring at Yeonjun. There was so much command in her tone that even though Soobin wasn’t the one she was calling for he looked at her.

“What?” said Yeonjun.

“If you weren’t looking at Soobin you’ll know what I asked you.”

Soobin turned to the boy who sat two seats away from him, but Yeonjun already turned away, if he was even looking at Soobin. He must’ve had looked at something behind Soobin and Yeji misunderstood. Simple.

Soobin went back to spacing out.

“Anyways,” Yeonjun’s finger tapping suddenly got faster, “like I said I didn’t realize I liked you— until a year ago when I was talking with my old friends and your name came up. You haven’t crossed my mind ever since we graduated! But suddenly thinking about you in a whole new perspective made me realize. But then thoughts of you were gone again y’know because you weren’t around.” He takes a deep breath and the tapping stops.

“ _And then_ this high school reunion thing came up… and you walked through that door.”

Yeonjun looks up at Soobin and for the first time in that night he didn’t look away after two seconds. Soobin became aware of how his whole body is tense, his shoulders uncomfortably raised up so high that it might touch his ears, and his traitorous heartbeat was thumping so loud he can’t hear the vibration of his phone.

Yeonjun’s eyes seems clear and determined, like someone that decided to take a leap of faith and didn’t care if the end result was a crash and burn. Soobin wonders if anyone else in the diner is seeing this spectacle.

Behind Yeonjun’s head is the diner’s entrance, there’s a blinking of lights and a familiar rumble of Soobin’s car that makes it way to his ears.

“Can I have your number?”

**Author's Note:**

> Got mixed feelings about posting this but, thanks for reading!


End file.
